Serial Designation

Chapter 10

I blinked at Carl. Eve held her hands to her mouth in shock. Veronix's face slowly turned into a frown.

I mean, I had to have seen this coming, right? Cliche twist to the story to add interest, right?

But I still... couldn't accept it.

Carl shrunk smaller still, a look of apologetic guilt on his face. I try to look like it's fine, but it's very difficult.

Eve seems to take the hint; she's very good at that. "I'm... gonna go downstairs," she said, and left the room quickly.

"Carl, can... can you go, too?" I ask. "Go and like, make toast or something."

Carl shakily got up and, without meeting mine or my sister's eyes, left the room.

I quietly shut the door behind him and turned to the computer. "Why didn't you say something," I demand.

"Not MY fault," Carl-2 replied. "This damn brick's got TERRIBLE facial recognition. I didn't know exactly who you were, but when I was plugged into that shitshow of a robot, I could see you clearly. Icelene and Veronix Malt, daughter of Selene and deceased Michael Malt." Carl-2's screen pulled up profiles and side views of each of my family members. I stared at the one of my dad, and perhaps out of politeness, Carl-2 made it fill the whole screen so I could see it clearer.

"If it helps... I really am sorry," Carl-2 said, before closing all the images and his screen going back to his X-eyes. "He was a nice guy. He said... he said to not come near his family if he has to die and isn't there to protect them... before I..." Carl-2 stopped.

Veronix sat down on my bed, trying hard not to break. She wasn't one to cry, but her eyes and face were turning a bit red. I stood in silence, a few tears rolling down my own face. I reached over and closed the computer; Carl-2 didn't protest.

After a few minutes of silence, the downstairs door opened. "ICE!" Mom shouted. "NIX!"

She sounded panicky.

Me and my sister got up and flew down the stairs. Eve was looking frantically out the window, pulling her purple sweater over her black tank top and grabbing her shoes.

"What's wrong??" Nix asks.

"Carl ran away," Mom said. "Eve came to wake me up as soon as Carl left, she couldn't stop him."

Eve looked ashamed.

"Eve, don't look like that, it wasn't your fault," I say to her.

"I still should've tried harder to keep him here," Eve said, "but I didn't want to command him around, you know, since, one, he's still relatively deadly, and two, it would undermine everything you did for him and I didn't want to make him mad at humans again." She got up. "Ms. Malt, can we borrow your Pod to look for him, since it's bigger?"

"Of course," Mom said immediately. "I'll stay here in case he comes back."

The three of us nod and leave the house into the garage.

Mom's Pod was parked next to ours. It was basically just a longer lemon that was a different color. We piled in, Eve sitting in the back, and pulled out of the garage.

We decided to go left out of our driveway first since that wasn't where much was, and Carl might have just wanted to get fully away. I pulled up our Designation radar on the dashboard screen of the Pod; it warned us if a Designation was close by.